Linked List: February 23, 2012

Thursday, 23 February 2012

This week’s episode of America’s favorite casual indoor footwear podcast. Topics include: Nightline’s Foxconn report (and the broader story of Apple’s Chinese supply chain in general), scam apps in the App Store, Google’s purported HUD glasses, laser eye surgery, web cookies and privacy, and more.

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Microsoft to Google: ‘Please Don’t Kill Video on the Web’ ★

Dave Heiner, deputy general counsel at Microsoft:

You probably take for granted that you can view videos on your smartphone, tablet, PC, or DVD/Blu-ray player and connect to the Internet without being tied to a cable. That works because the industry came together years ago to define common technical standards that every firm can use to build compatible products for video and Wi-Fi. Motorola and all the other firms that contributed to these standards also made a promise to one another: that if they had any patents essential to the standards, they would make their patents available on fair and reasonable terms, and would not use them to block competitors from shipping their products.

Motorola has broken its promise. Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google as its new owner doesn’t seem to be willing to change course.

I’m greatly enjoying Microsoft taking the role of chief “Google, stop being so evil” critic.

CNet: ‘Google Music Not Living Up to Expectations’ ★

Greg Sandoval, reporting for CNet:

Three months after launching, Google Music hasn’t lived up to expectations, CNET has learned.

The Google Droid was a centerpiece at Google Music’s launch party on Nov. 16, 2011. Google’s managers have told counterparts at the labels that customer adoption and revenue are below what they expected, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.

Harder than it looks.

Google to Replace Motorola Mobility CEO ★

Peter Burrows, Brian Womack, and Hugo Miller, reporting for Bloomberg:

Google Inc., which won U.S. approval for its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., is close to naming Dennis Woodside to run the business when the deal closes, three people familiar with the matter said.

Woodside, who led Google’s ad sales in the Americas before leaving that job to oversee the merger, would succeed Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Jha, said the people, who declined to be named because the decision isn’t public.

No surprise. The only success Jha had at Motorola was forcing Google to buy them by threatening an all-out patent war against other Android handset makers.

Not sure what to make of the fact that they’re replacing him with an ad sales guy.

Dilbert Gets a Design Contract From Samsung ★

“So you want me to design something that is a bad tablet and an even worse phone?”

Rich Mogull on Gatekeeper ★

Rich Mogull, writing at TidBITS:

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion includes a transformative security technology called Gatekeeper. It’s a major new advance in operating system security designed to reduce dramatically the ability of an attacker to trick users into installing malicious software. It could be the key to preventing a future malware epidemic.

It’s a terrific overview, and if you want even more technical analysis of how Gatekeeper works, Mogull has a detailed follow-up on his Securosis site.

Tumult Hype 1.5 ★

Terrific update to Hype, the excellent interactive HTML5 animation/development tool. Among the many new features: the ability to export directly to an iBooks Author HTML widget.

Nicholas Carr: Why Publishers Should Give Away E-Books ★

Nicholas Carr argues that book publishers should include e-book versions with print books:

So why give away the bits? Well, traditional book publishers have three big imperatives today: (1) protect print sales for as long as possible (in order to fund a longer-term transition to a workable new business model); (2) help keep physical bookstores in business (for the reasons set out in this article by Julie Bosman); and (3) do anything possible to curb the power of Amazon.com, the publishers’ arch-frenemy. Bundling bits with atoms helps on all three fronts.

Disney, for one, does this with their Blu-ray movies. You buy the Blu-ray and you get three editions of the same movie: a Blu-ray disc, a DVD disc, and a digital download. You pay once and you can effectively play the movie anywhere.

MLB Gameday Audio ★

One difference between the old free and paid versions of MLB At Bat was that the paid version included access to live audio streams of every game. Looks like there’s a new subscription level for audio listeners: $20 for the season. One way or another, audio listeners will have an option for unrestricted access to audio streams without having to pay $125 for the full MLB.tv subscription.

Update: The $20 subscription is for desktop audio. As for mobile, Clayton Morris reports on Twitter:

MLB has confirmed to me that live game audio will be available for the price of $14.99 in the At Bat 2012 app. Free with the TV package.